Word: Retrograde

 

retrograde

[ re-truh-greyd ]

 

adjective

1. moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating.

2. inverse or reversed, as order.

3. Chiefly Biology. exhibiting degeneration or deterioration.

verb (used without object), ret·ro·grad·ed, ret·ro·grad·ing.

4. to move or go backward; retire or retreat.

5. Chiefly Biology. to decline to a worse condition; degenerate.

verb (used with object), ret·ro·grad·ed, ret·ro·grad·ing.

6. Archaic. to turn back.

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               The world was moving backwards. Not in a metaphorical sense of culture or technology, but in a very literal way. At least, that was how it looked to Jack. He stood in place, just under the awning of his apartment building. There, he watched the world move backwards.

               People moved backwards. Cars drove backwards. Even birds flew in reverse. He could hear snippets of conversation that he could not understand, because the words were backwards. It was as if time itself had been thrown into reverse, with him being the only one still moving forward.

               The speed everything moved was normal. It was just the direction that was wrong. The people looked completely normal, like they were just living their everyday lives. He watched a pigeon with a piece of bread in its beak land, drop its morsel, and then fly off, facing the wrong way. He watched a woman walking a dog bend down to empty a bag of her dog’s droppings before persona and animal walked backwards towards wherever they had come from. He did try and forget what else had gone in reverse in that particular instance though.

               Jack leaned against the wall, wondering what was happening. There was little he could do about it, at least as far as he was aware. How could he set the entire world to rights? Did he even need to? He was moving just fine. At least, he thought he was. He took a step forward, just to make sure. He nearly collided with a man who, presumably, was going to work. Well, in his case he was going from work to home. At least, that’s how Jack thought of it. Really, time moving backwards was a difficult thing to wrap his head around and he was not sure how to think about anything.

               He idly wondered what would happen if he tried to trip any of the people, but decided against it. He had watched enough science fiction to know that trying to mess with time was a recipe for disaster. Although that brought up a lot more thoughts that just made everything more complicated than it already was.

               That was why Jack opted to go back inside. He was not sure how he would interact with the world now, but he had used the door just fine. That told him he could probably still use things. Probably. At least he hoped so. He figured time was probably hardy enough that things would go back to normal soon. Or at least start affecting him like everything else. That would probably be okay as well. Either way, things would go back to normal from his perspective, and that was good enough for him. And if not, he could see about doing something about it later. Maybe once he had a bit of time to really let things settle into his mind. And after the panic attack he knew would come after.

               But for now, Jack went back to his apartment, sat down and let his mind wander. He could figure things out later.

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I'm not really sure where this came from, but here it is. Enjoy!